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Station to receive cargo-delivery module tonight BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: April 7, 2010 Traffic on the International Space Station's local area network has slowed downlink of multi-gigabyte heat shield inspection files, NASA officials said Wednesday. But no major problems have been seen so far as analysts prioritize their work to clear the shuttle Discovery's right wing first, allowing the astronauts to attach a massive cargo module to the space station overnight Wednesday.
Mounted in the back of Discovery's cargo bay, the MPLM is scheduled to be attached to the station's Unity module just after midnight. But once the module is in place, the 50-foot-long robot arm extension that would be needed to re-examine any areas of concern on the shuttle's right wing would not be able to get in the proper position if a problem was found later that required a "focused" inspection. "The items of greatest priority and interest to us are those associated with the starboard wing," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team. "We want to clear the starboard wing from any focused inspection requirements as soon as we can because we do have some (robot arm) interference once we take the MPLM out and put it on the station. So, that work is ongoing and we anticipate that we'll be able to press ahead with the MPLM work when the crew gets up tonight." Detailed flight day two inspections of the shuttle's reinforced carbon carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels, which experience the most extreme heating during re-entry, normally are transmitted to the ground in real time. But because the shuttle's Ku-band antenna is out of action due to a post-launch malfunction, the astronauts were forced to convert the videos to digital files for downlink through the station's Ku-band system. Six such 7.2-gigabyte files were generated but as of 6 p.m. Wednesday, only the first two had made it down to the ground. One more is needed to clear the right wing before the MPLM can be installed. "We were targeting to have all of the starboard wing data to the ground by 11 o'clock and some of the rest of the data in addition to that," Cain said. "We did not have it all to the ground by then. Part of the challenge we had is the rate of the data coming down was varying somewhat and we think it had to do with the amount of traffic on the local area network between the shuttle and the station during that time period. "Right after we got docked and got the hatches open and (brought) all those systems up, there's a number of other activities that have to go on. ... What we found is, once the crew went to sleep, the rate increased pretty significantly because there was a lot less traffic on the LAN." Cain said additional imagery confirmed the loss of part of a heat shield tile on Discovery's rudder-speedbrake. Analysts also have noted a small amount of surface damage on a tile near one of the propellant feedline doors on the shuttle's belly. But he said neither issue was expected to cause any problems. "All in all, Discovery's doing extremely well, the crew on board is doing very, very well and they're ready to press on with the flight plan," Cain said. "Of everything we've looked at so far, we have no concerns at all." Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision B of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font): EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 04/07 08:21 PM...02...14...00...Crew wakeup 10:01 PM...02...15...40...Russian PAO event 10:21 PM...02...16...00...Station arm (SSRMS) grapples MPLM 10:51 PM...02...16...30...SSRMS unberths MPLM 04/08 12:11 AM...02...17...50...SSRMS installs MPLM 12:36 AM...02...18...15...MPLM first stage bolts 12:56 AM...02...18...35...MPLM second stage bolts 01:11 AM...02...18...50...EVA-1: Equipment lock preps 02:00 AM...02...19...39...Mission status briefing on NTV 02:16 AM...02...19...55...SSRMS ungrapples MPLM 02:46 AM...02...20...25...Crew meals begin 03:01 AM...02...20...40...MPLM vestibule pressurization 03:46 AM...02...21...25...Middeck transfers 04:16 AM...02...21...55...MPLM vestibule config for ingress 05:46 AM...02...23...25...MPLM activation (part 1) 07:41 AM...03...01...20...MPLM activation (part 2) 08:01 AM...03...01...40...MPLM ingress 08:16 AM...03...01...55...News media interviews 08:36 AM...03...02...15...EVA-1: Procedures review 09:26 AM...03...03...05...ISS daily planning conference 11:16 AM...03...04...55...EVA-1: Mask pre-breathe 12:01 PM...03...05...40...EVA-1: Airlock depress to 10.2 psi 12:21 PM...03...06...00...ISS crew sleep begins 12:51 PM...03...06...30...STS crew sleep begins 01:00 PM...03...06...39...Daily video highlights reel on NTV 04:00 PM...03...09...39...Post-MMT briefing on NTV 06:00 PM...03...11...39...Flight director update on NTV 08:51 PM...03...14...30...Crew wakeup Additional coverage for subscribers: VIDEO: WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON'S MANAGEMENT TEAM UPDATE PLAY VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY VIDEO: WEDNESDAY MORNING'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY VIDEO: SHUTTLE CREW WELCOMED ABOARD THE STATION PLAY VIDEO: POST-DOCKING OF THE SHUTTLE BAY AND TAIL PLAY VIDEO: DISCOVERY DOCKS TO THE SPACE STATION PLAY VIDEO: SHUTTLE PERFORMS 360-DEGREE BACKFLIP PLAY VIDEO: PREVIEW OF RENDEZVOUS AND DOCKING ACTIVITIES PLAY VIDEO: OBJECT LOST FROM SHUTTLE TAIL DURING LAUNCH PLAY VIDEO: TUESDAY AFTERNOON'S MANAGEMENT TEAM UPDATE PLAY VIDEO: THE FULL STS-131 LAUNCH EXPERIENCE PLAY VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY VIDEO: TUESDAY MORNING'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY VIDEO: PREVIEW OF FLIGHT DAY 2 ACTIVITIES PLAY VIDEO: NARRATED TOUR OF DISCOVERY'S PAYLOAD BAY PLAY VIDEO: DESCRIPTION OF KU-BAND ANTENNA PROBLEM PLAY VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY VIDEO: SHUTTLE DISCOVERY BLASTS OFF! PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: GO INSIDE MISSION CONTROL DURING LAUNCH PLAY VIDEO: POST-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: VAB ROOF PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PRESS SITE PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PATRICK AFB PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD PERIMETER PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: BEACH TRACKER PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD CAMERA 070 PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD CAMERA 071 PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PLAYALINDA BEACH PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD FRONT CAMERA PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: KSC WEST TOWER PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS LEAVE CREW QUARTERS PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: CREW FINISHES GETTING SUITED UP PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: NARRATED REVIEW OF SHUTTLE'S PREPARATIONS PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: NARRATED REVIEW OF PAYLOADS' PREPARATIONS PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: PREPARING AN EXTERNAL TANK FOR LAUNCH PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE OF GANTRY ROLLING BACK FOR LAUNCH PLAY VIDEO: LAUNCH PAD'S SERVICE TOWER RETRACTED PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: PAYLOAD BAY DOORS CLOSED FOR LAUNCH PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS INSPECT THE PAYLOAD BAY PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: STS-131 MISSION PREVIEW MOVIE PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH COMMANDER POINDEXTER PLAY VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH PILOT JIM DUTTON PLAY VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH RICK MASTRACCHIOPLAY VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH METCALF-LINDENBURGER PLAY VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH STEPHANIE WILSON PLAY VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH NAOKO YAMAZAKI PLAY VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH CLAY ANDERSON PLAY VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY VIDEO: COUNTDOWN STATUS AND WEATHER OUTLOOK PLAY VIDEO: PREVIEW OF DISCOVERY'S LAUNCH COUNTDOWN PLAY VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE FOR LAUNCH PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: FULL FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW NEWS BRIEFING PLAY VIDEO: RECAP OF THE FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: HELIUM VALVE NO CONSTRAINT TO LAUNCH PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: MANAGERS ASSESS ISSUES BEFORE FLIGHT PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: UPDATE ON PRE-LAUNCH PREPS AT PAD 39A PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: SPACEWALKING SUITS LOADED ABOARD PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH STS-131 PAYLOAD MANAGER PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH BOEING PAYLOAD MANAGER PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: PAYLOADS DELIVERED TO LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: TRANSPORT CANISTER ROTATED VERTICALLY PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: LEONARDO PLACED INTO THE TRANSPORTER PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: STATION'S NEW AMMONIA COOLANT TANK PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: LEONARDO HATCH CLOSED FOR FLIGHT PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: FILLING UP ONE OF THE SUPPLY RACKS PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: CAN THE SHUTTLE PROGRAM AVOID LOOMING RETIREMENT? PLAY VIDEO: WHAT ABOUT ADDING ONE MORE SHUTTLE MISSION? PLAY VIDEO: FULL BRIEFING BY SHUTTLE AND STATION OFFICIALS PLAY VIDEO: THE STS-131 MISSION OVERVIEW PRESENTATIONS PLAY VIDEO: PREVIEW BRIEFING ON MISSION'S SPACEWALKS PLAY VIDEO: THE ASTRONAUTS' PRE-FLIGHT NEWS BRIEFING PLAY VIDEO: SHUTTLE EVACUATION PRACTICE PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: CREW MODULE HATCH IS CLOSED PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS BOARD DISCOVERY PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: CREW BRIEFED ON EMERGENCY PROCEDURES PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: TEST-DRIVING AN EMERGENCY ARMORED TANK PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: NIGHTTIME APPROACHES IN TRAINING AIRCRAFT PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS CHAT WITH REPORTERS AT PAD 39A PLAY VIDEO: CREW ARRIVES FOR PRACTICE COUNTDOWN PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: GANTRY PLACED AROUND DISCOVERY PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: DISCOVERY REACHES PAD 39A PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: OVERNIGHT ROLLOUT BEGINS PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: SHUTTLE HOISTED FOR ATTACHMENT TO TANK PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: CRANE ROTATES THE ORBITER VERTICALLY PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: DISCOVERY MOVES TO ASSEMBLY BUILDING PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS VISIT THEIR SPACECRAFT PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: CREW GOES INSIDE LEONARDO MODULE PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: EXTERNAL TANK ATTACHED TO BOOSTERS PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: FUEL TANK LIFTED INTO CHECKOUT CELL PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: EXTERNAL TANK ARRIVES AT SPACEPORT PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: DISCOVERY'S NOSE POD ATTACHED PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: INSTALLING DISCOVERY'S MAIN ENGINES PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: KSC'S SHUTTLE MAIN ENGINE SHOP PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO: GASEOUS NITROGEN TANK REMOVED PLAY | HI-DEF SUBSCRIBE NOW |
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